Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Hey, maybe we can have a triple-dip recession, as M&A activity increases, more & more people who work for a living are thrown out of work by corporate entity consolidation, consumer demand falls even more, the economy spirals to the bottom, & so on. Sweeee-eeet.

As an editor/publisher/typist on a fixed income, we can state w/o reservation that we favor deflation that will knock the fucking socks off slobs who work for a living. Some of you fuckers out there lucky enough to have a job (as of this typing) may not see another raise in your wage-slaving lifetimes.

[Cue evil laugh. (We really gotta record that, to add to the schadenfreude.)]

Started reading a story about a really depressed quantum mechanic a few days ago. Didn't finish of course (Seemed depressing.) but we were informed by the part where the melancholy protagonist felt that everything was an imposition.

Tell us about it! Breathing, for one example. Will it never stop? Just stop making demands on us! (You may have heard "Leave Hulk alone!" somewhere before. We asked politely. Then.)

So imagine dealing w/ the desire to type something. It's an imposition even to find something we can proudly announce we don't give a shit about. Finding something worth bitching about that hasn't already been bitched to death is another imposition. There's a lot of bitching going on. And now we feel we aren't holding up our end of the bitching. Fuck it, we're superfluous, we'll just sit down over here & supervise.

After more than six years of carving up and flushing what used to be referred to as the California Dream, the Governor has looked around at the wreckage and decided to float the story that it wasn't his doing. Many have obediently picked up the narrative and amplified it through the press and online. The story, as set out, for instance, in the New York Times, goes: the Governor is a real independent, neither a rabid left-wing Democrat nor a salivating Tea Partier and, therefore, no one loves him any more. Somehow, even as he stands in the rubble of California, Arnold has spun this to be a good thing, when, instead, he is an embodiment of what Texas gadfly Jim Hightower meant when he said, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos."

Monday, August 9, 2010

So alienated from & bored by the species that makes this planet the hell-hole it is, we decided to lie down for a nap. No sooner had consciousness faded than the fucking mobile rang.

Stipulated: No reason in the entire dull world of alienating weirdos to have had it on, you're right, our fault, but c'mon, it was a call from somewhere in 702 (Las Vegas). Meaning a wrong number. No one we know. We're still weighing printing the number, if any Amy Alkon types would like to give the caller a piece of our mind for us.

Now that we've been forced into what passes for consciousness around here, we may waste some time & electricity w/ the new firmware that appeared in the DVR today. Most "exciting" is a folder option in the list of crap that's sitting in the hard drive. (Result: Less clicking when trying to decide which movie not to watch.)

At this point we can't determine which is sillier: being so jaded, or pretending we give a fuck. Certainly the latter is pretty transparent, but there's no way it can be proved we aren't jaded beyond all human possibility.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Even after four cups of coffee opening a wrist doesn't seem such a bad idea, though Sunday night (In August?) professional football may keep us amused enough to continue w/ the in- & exhalation. Perhaps from a prone position.

Not even a murdered intern or a shark attack to be had. Here's a picture of a large shellacked rabbit.

Noting an outburst of music/video posting, we realized White Christian Country American Music might be under-represented by left-libs. Here's a honky whose birthday happens to be today.You can not do anything whiter than bill yourself as "The Singing Sheriff."Above Not Safe For Aging Melancholics.

The Shorter: How to Fuck, for Married w/ Children Jesus Freaks. (Emphasis theirs.)

Husbands, don’t waste every date night at a movie where you can’t talk. Use the time to visit with your wife, draw her out, and study her like you do the Bible.

Husbands, plan out your date nights. Ask you wife in advance what sounds good, see what your options are, and make a plan. She’ll be thankful.

[...]

Men, you don’t pursue a woman to marry her and stop pursuing her. You pursue a woman to marry her and pursue her with more passion and creativity than ever. How’s it going husbands?

Men, if you don’t date your wife, someone else may eventually volunteer for the job.

Ladies, sometimes it’s a great gift to go into your husband’s world for a date night by doing something like putting on a jersey going to a game and eating a hot dog. His love language may just be hot dog.

Men: find a shirt with buttons, try two eyebrows instead of one, find a breath mint or 20, show up with a gift, don’t ogle other women, and go to a restaurant that does not have a spork.

Sometimes the best date night is date breakfast, date lunch, or surprise pick up your spouse from work for an hour at a hotel.

Those trying to make sense of this in a context more recent than "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" should be advised that our source is a mega-church w/ "Biblical manhood" as one of its themes.

Below, "Pastor" Mark & the Missis. What Ricky Nelson would look like today.

Hair colored as gawd intended it.

While this sort of "men are pigs, women are teasing sluts" role play is thought to be headed in the direction of buggy whips, eight-track cartridges & printed, bound books, it's to be understood that three-card monte & other bunco schemes will always have a few willing players. No wonder the parishioners need to be reminded how & why to "date."

Thers, Head-Typist-In-Charge of Whiskey Fire, has (not knowing any better, & you'd think, what w/ having offspring & all, he would) "left us the keys" to his establishment as he vacates for a wk.

This couldn't come at a worse time for us, as we misplaced our mojo somewhere, & haven't been as inspired in our railing against the forces of repression lately. Just as well, we'll cool it there w/ the death-threats we've been reduced to making here.

And spare us the crap about "upping our game." This is not a game, it's serious. Like cancer.

The virus that was driving us madder than usual has been beaten down, & new security measures have been installed (along w/ a note to our internal sogware: Believe Chrome the next time it advises there's trouble ahead).

After all this interfacing we are completely dulled out by the prospect of further labor at the keyboard, & have little to add to any discourse anyway. Find amusement elsewhere.

It was then that I realized that the revival of the Clinton legacy was on in earnest. Brown, a prominent Brit import, is an expert on refurbishing tarnished royalty, as she demonstrated with her gushing tribute to the Clinton wedding as “a happy throwback to the carefree 1990s.” So carefree that no one of importance, certainly not in the Clinton White House, took serious stock of the collapse of hedge funds like Long-Term Capital Management, a harbinger of disasters to come.

In what I assume was not self-parody, Brown stated that “the Clintons are enjoying political rosy-glow syndrome. In the light of what’s happened since—two grueling wars, the implosion of debt, 14 million unemployed … Chelsea’s wedding allowed us to remember all that prosperity, those continuous Clinton surpluses.” But not, as I the party pooper must add, the Financial Services Modernization Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which enabled the financial bubble that caused those 14 million to be unemployed.

This all reminds me of the pass given that last attempt at American royalty, when the legacy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy came to be whitewashed so that his reckless decisions to invade Cuba and Vietnam were not to be mentioned. One can hear the “Happy Days Are Here Again” Democratic theme song as Hillary Clinton comes to be nominated after Obama has failed to solve the dire economic problems that his predecessors—Bill Clinton as well as George W. Bush—left him.

Wyclef Jean Will Run for President of Haiti
He's been hinting at it for weeks, but the Haitian-born star is expected to make his candidacy official on "Larry King Live" tomorrow night.Read original story in CNN | Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010

We're proud there's nothing but shock value & yellow journalism here (if the inanity of quotidian emptiness isn't read). In meat-space, the most literally-shocking line we ever delivered was this item's title. (To a fellow Kinkos wage-slave, a gothette, to fulfill your stereotypical expectations. People w/ whom one must associate in the grim, futile marathon of real-world survival can often be amazingly square, even in sympathetic guise. Crazy kids.)

Sure it was hyperbolic, but at the time it was all telebision &/or sleeping for us in the world beyond the no horizon-in-sight endless grind & humiliation of wage-slaving.

Anyway, we deadpanned it well enough for her jaw to drop appreciably. Actually shocked, not mere épater les bourgeois, "Ha-ha, you so crazy, Bouff," shocking, but "He could mean that, WTF?" shocking. Someone else should have been there too.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is probably not joking, unless the usual "Is this anything but the longest running performance art bit in recorded history?" (Or, as the old school knew it, a hoax.) is applied.

Added irksome & disturbing discovery: One can no longer rid one's devil-box of the accursed IdiotExploder7 if one has Vista Service Pack 3, unless one does much more than using Remove Programs. What the fucking hell is that, Billy Gates? Even worse, it claims that it will revert to/reinstall IE6. That's going to be more secure, innit?

Makes us wish Billy hadn't been two yrs. behind us at The Lakeside School for Boys so many yrs. ago. If we'd known him then we'd ring him right fucking now & give him several pieces of our mind. Try a little philanthropy toward the customers whose money lets you indulge your philanthropic egomania, jerkwad! (Classmate Paul Allen, are you of any use here?)

And, we were out enjoying ourself yesterday (pix later, maybe) so lack of items appearing here shouldn't be entirely blamed on the damn thing, which may take yrs. to resolve. (Thanks for the encouragement, "Ron in Milwaukee.") Besides, it's August. Why shouldn't we take a well-deserved vacation? Employment, or lack thereof, has nothing to do w/ it.

Not a good sign: First place we visited for solutions indicated that the tool we'd need is Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, already installed in the devil box. We've run it twice, the first time it found more viral crap than Bill Gates' security thingie (which also claimed to have removed & quarantined all the nasty) & claimed to have removed them. The second time, even as the virus was popping-up at us, it didn't find anything. Though it seems as if Antivir hides after you've clicked "no, eat my fuck" about 50 times.

Big question: Why the fuck can't this be stopped? Per bleepingcomputer.com, the assholes behind this scam will take your money via credit card. Is there no fucking way to track these shits down for torture & mutilation? War in ah Babylon nothing, what's Obama doing about this terrorism?

The Just Another Blog™ devil-box was attacked by a Trojan early this p.m., as soon as we typed in the password & hit enter.

Finally were able to get Microsoft Security to clean it out before the fucking Nazi Trojan robot stopped everything else from working (Who'd've thought computing would require such physical dexterity?) & then ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, which found the remnant of the infestation & destroyed it.

The effing thing managed to reset all the damn browsers to go through a (non-existent, obviously) proxy, keeping us from connecting to anything but gmail. (What makes them so special? And points to Firefox for advising us that it was a proxy problem. No thanks to Chrome or IdiotExploder7.) So we thought we'd check w/ TWCable before effing w/ anything, & the woman who checked their end of things out walked us through non-setting for proxy use, even though it wasn't TWC's fault. Very nice. Of course, TWC let the fucking Trojan through in the first place, but ...

Now a question: Why has no one tracked down the creator of this Antivir Solution Pro & shoved a laptop about 50 ft. up his ass, sideways?

Let's see you up your productivity a little, Professor Althouse. If you can't teach a couple more classes this term, someone else will, & probably for less money & better results.

How is it a sin — greed! — or treachery for a business to operate efficiently by laying off employees when there is less work to be done?

In most cases in the real world, there is just as much work to be done as before. Lay-offs are to improve the bottom-line for greedy stockholders (Hey? Isn't "greed!" one of those seven deadly sins?) not because half the people in the office are sitting around shooting baskets in their neighbor's wastebasket w/ crumpled pieces of paper because there's so little to do.

Fucking parasitic ignoramus, get a clue about the world of greed & suffering that real  hard-working!  Americans endure daily, or shut your glibertarian-cliché keyboard.

Althouse's adventures in foaming at the mouth based on Bob Herbert in The NYT. Now there is no reason in the world, ever, to click her.

The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.

No idea what a U.S. "passport card" is (though USSR-style internal passports & required-for-blacks Union of South Africa pass cards come to mind).

Damnit, we've learned something new, despite ourself! Oddly enough, we found passport card when looking for "pass cards," not trusting our memory that that was the exact phrase. (It is, & how long before we're all sporting these things w/ us under penalty of law & deportation?)

Happy Traveler, our ass.

Why did we wonder?

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are becoming pervasive as the barcodes of the 21st century. They are being used in everything from Wal-Mart merchandise to U.S. passport cards.

From, via The Daliy Dish, the October '71 Esquire story that exposed 'phone phreaks to the civilized world.

What Sully liked:

As We May Think by Vannevar Bush from the July 1945 issue of the Atlantic is the first candidate. An excerpt:

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

There Is No New Black Panther Party: An Open Letter From the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation

In response to numerous requests from individuals seeking information on the "New Black Panthers," the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation issues this public statement to correct the distorted record being made in the media by a small band of African Americans calling themselves the New Black Panthers. As guardian of the true history of the Black Panther Party, the Foundation, which includes former leading members of the Party, denounces this group's exploitation of the Party's name and history. Failing to find its own legitimacy in the black community, this band would graft the Party's name upon itself, which we condemn.

Firstly, the people in the New Black Panthers were never members of the Black Panther Party and have no legitimate claim on the Party's name. On the contrary, they would steal the names and pretend to walk in the footsteps of the Party's true heroes, such as Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton, George Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Cark, and so many others who gave their very lives to the black liberation struggle under the Party's banner.

Secondly, they denigrate the Party's name by promoting concepts absolutely counter to the revolutionary principles on which the Party was founded. Their alleged media assault on the Ku Klux Klan serves to incite hatred rather than resolve it. The Party's fundamental principle, as best articulated by the great revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was: "A true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." The Black Panthers were never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the "white establishment." The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people.

Furthermore, this group claims it would "teach" the black community about armed self-defense. The arrogance of this claim is overwhelmed by its reactionary nature. Blacks, especially in the South, have been armed in self-defense for a very long time; indeed, the spiritual parent of the Party itself was the Louisiana-based Deacons for Defense. However, the Party understood that the gun was not necessarily revolutionary, for the police and all other oppressive forces had guns. It was the ideology behind the gun that determined its nature.

Because the Party believed that only the masses of people would make the revolution, the Party never presumed itself to be above the people. The Party considered itself a servant of the people and taught by example. Given massive black hunger, the Party provided free breakfast for children and other free food programs. In the absence of decent medical facilities in the black community, the Party operated free medical clinics. In the face of police brutality, the Party stood up and resisted. Considering the overwhelming number of blacks facing trials and long prison terms, the Party developed free legal aid and bussing-to-prison programs.

The question the Foundation raises, then, is who are these people laying claim to the Party's history and name? Are they reactionary provocateurs, who would instigate activities counterproductive to the people's interests, causing mayhem and death? Are they entertainers, who would posture themselves before the media, and, according to numerous sources, with empty guns, to spin gold for themselves? Are they, given the history of their late-leader Khalid Muhammad, a group of anti-Semites like the very Ku Klux Klan they allegedly oppose? What is their agenda?

Conditions for blacks in America today are worse than when the Black Panther Party was formed in 1966. Blacks in the main continue to live in poverty; disproportionate percentages of blacks die from AIDS and cancer, as the black infant mortality rate continues to be double that of whites. There is a desperate need for a liberation agenda. The Black Panther Party unarguably set the example, espousing principles and a history that certainly should be embraced by all those still struggling for freedom. Rather than appropriating the Party's name, however, groups that purport to represent African Americans ought to follow the Party's true historical example. In the absence of such commitment, the Foundation denounces the usurpation of the Black Panther Party name by this questionable band of self-appointed leaders.

We must be on some kind of roll ("How far the motherfuckin' Kaiser rolls?") 'cause just about everything we've cranked out recently (pogroms, for example) has led us to more on the theme, if not the actual event.

Shall we say that the Warrior Legacy eagle here is awfully stylized, as in feathers that don't occur in nature? Not terribly unlike ...

As disgusted as we are by militarism, it's equally disgusting that anyone wounded in the service of the United States should have to have one fucking penny raised for them. The tax-paying slobs of these United Snakes should be forced to cover any & all possible bills, expenses & needs for these poor bastards who murder & die in their name. (Not in our name, though. We pay no taxes, & take as much from the federal coffers as we can. Doing our bit to stop the war machine!)

And we intend to hold this position until the next time we're so revolted by the whole deal of these fools volunteering to murder &/or be made mincemeat to defend a nation that can't/won't offer them any options other than enlisting, & we start thinking they & anyone closely related to them should be sterilized for the betterment of this repugnant species of which we so desire not to be a member.

Everything we've dealt w/ today has been so disgusting & time-consuming we aren't going to bother much w/ this, other than to point out to its homophobic (& comment-phobic) typist that:

Maybe if the guy weren't treated like crap by the United Snakes & its military, he might not be so willing to expose how the U.S. military is a fucked-up mess. While we are a different-sexer (Not that there's anything wrong w/ it.) we missed being socialized to the bullshit of this horrid society (indeed, entire world) of shit, pain & suffering we were brought into w/o anyone even asking us, so we completely understand Pv't. Manning's attitude.

Perhaps, rather than blaming someone's sexual orientation, Assrocket Hinderaker might look at the way people are treated by their society, & its attitude toward them for something in which they had no choice. (Blame should be ascribed to the 'phobes, not the 'mos, is what we mean.)

Here (so you needn't supplement his income as a tool of legal repression) is Dartmouth grad (What's w/ that place, anyway?) Heinie's take on Pv't. Manning (Our emphasis & editorial snark.):

First, Private Manning is openly homosexual. [Cooties! Homo cooties!! Cover your crotches, real men!!!] Did you know that? I didn't; if the fact has been reported in the American press, I've missed it. Moreover, Manning was an activist who demonstrated against Congress's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. His Facebook includes a photo of him at a gay rights rally, holding a sign demanding equality on "the battlefield." Further, he has posted anti-military comments on his Facebook page. An uncle describes him as "an introverted kid who loved computers and was fired up politically." That tantalizing reference is left hanging. Whether he was fired up about something other than gay rights remains unknown, for the moment.

The source of Assrocket's above bullshit would seem to be this in the Torygraph. ("Torygraph" brought to our attention by Smut Clyde of the Antipodes, where/what/ever the hell they are/is.)

Almost forgot this:

These are facts that would no doubt be of interest to American readers, yet, as so often happens, our reporters and editors appear to be engaged in a policy of collective discretion. Imagine, though, if Manning had been a tea partier, if he had been photographed holding an anti-government sign at a tea party rally, and if friends described him as being "fired up" about conservative politics. Do you think those facts would be prominently featured in the media narrative about the leaks?

Imagine, our ass. No one can possibly believe that anyone who was "'fired up' about conservative politics" would leak anything but deceptively edited (& not further investigated) videotape in an effort to smear someone. Breathes there a conservative anywhere opposed to acts of organized military (& other) violence against those who do not subscribe to their reactionary ideology?

Dozens of families face the prospect of being pushed off plots of land they own and forced to move back into illegal "side-of-the road" and wasteland camping. Children will be unable to go to school and the elderly and infirm unable to access health services, say the campaigners.

Eric Pickles, the communities and local government minister, is drafting new laws to allow police more powers to evict and arrest people for trespass on public land. Planning laws are also being changed to stop applications for retrospective permission to put caravans on private land.

Property rights? Don't mean shit if you don't have armed fascist bullies (The police, if we haven't made that abundantly clear.) to defend those can-be-eliminated-at-any-moment rights, do they? Why is it even called "public land" if the fucking public can't use it?

"Gypsies are being squeezed on all sides in this wave of intolerance and racism which is unlike anything I've ever seen before," said Gratton Puxon, 69, a founder member of the Gypsy Council.

There are around 18,000 Gypsy and Traveller caravans in England, with 80% of them on authorised sites, land they own or rent. The numbers on illegal sites is so small, according to the government's own reports, that they could all be accommodated on one square mile.

If only the pathetic willingness of humanoids to scapegoat could, just this once, be applied to the wealthy & powerful, that is, the actually evil among us? Just once? Or maybe six or seven billion times, if that isn't too much to hope?

The clampdown comes against a background of rising attacks against Roma people in Europe which has led to a demand for the EU to tackle what some are calling an attempted "ethnic cleansing" of travelling people. France has intensified its crackdown on Gypsies, announcing that 300 sites would be closed down in the next three months and any Gypsies found breaking the law would be deported. In 2008 the Italian government declared its Roma population was a national security risk, while in 2009 more than 100 Romanian Gypsies were attacked with bricks and bottles in Ireland and driven from their homes.

We haven't been following the latest Tory experiment in destroying the social fabric"imposing austerity" too closely, but the reference below to the elimination of regional assemblies may be indicative of just what's up.

In Essex, where the statutory requirement for the provision of sites to accommodate 104 travelling people has now gone with the abolition of the regional planning assemblies, Basildon council issued an eviction notice last week on eight families living on their own land at one site. It is also embroiled in a court battle to evict a further 70 families from a site at Dale Farm, on the outskirts of the town. At the former scrapyard, bought by Irish Travellers 10 years ago and slowly transformed into a caravan park, families have been buying tents in preparation for their eviction. The camp's 50 or so children have no idea whether they will return to their primary school after the summer holidays.

We anxiously await calls for "PROPERTY RIGHTS!!!" from all those for whom property "rights" trump simple humanity & decency. [Checks time again. Waits several beats. Checks again. Waits. Sighs, gives up, goes looking for a weapon.] *We've come to the conclusion that, as we are not fascist asshole jerks (our recent non-stop calls for revolution & murder notwithstanding) it is highly unlikely that we are Homo sapiens sapiens, but just might be a decent & humane mutation thereof. (Despite all the unprotected sex, we've only come close to reproducing once, & it didn't take. Can't even produce sterile human mules w/ you hideous creatures.)

One of the most troubling aspects of the destruction of al-Arakib was a report by CNN that the hundreds of Israeli riot police who stormed the village were accompanied by “busloads of cheering civilians.” Who were these civilians and why didn’t CNN or any outlet investigate further?

Here's a surprise. It's even more appalling.

Arab Negev News publisher Ata Abu Madyam supplied me with a series of photos he took of the civilians in action. They depicted Israeli high school students who appeared to have volunteered as members of the Israeli police civilian guard (I am working on identifying some participants by name). Prior to the demolitions, the student volunteers were sent into the villagers’ homes to extract their furniture and belongings. A number of villagers including Madyam told me the volunteers smashed windows and mirrors in their homes and defaced family photographs with crude drawings. Then they lounged around on the furniture of al-Arakib residents in plain site of the owners. Finally, according to Matyam, the volunteers celebrated while bulldozers destroyed the homes.

“What we learned from the summer camp of destruction,” Madyam remarked, “is that Israeli youth are not being educated on democracy, they are being raised on racism.” (The cover of the latest issue of Madyam’s Arab Negev News features a photo of Palestinians being expelled to Jordan in 1948 juxtaposed with a photo of a family fleeing al-Arakib last week. The headline reads, “Nakba 2010.”)

Conclusion:

The spectacle of Israeli youth helping destroy al-Arakib helps explain why 56% of Jewish Israeli high school students do not believe Arabs should be allowed to serve in the Knesset – why the next generation wants apartheid. Indeed, the widespread indoctrination of Israeli youth by the military apparatus is a central factor in Israel’s authoritarian trend. It would be difficult for any adolescent boy to escape from an experience like al-Arakib, where adults in heroic warrior garb encourage him to participate in and gloat over acts of massive destruction, with any semblance of democratic values.

As for the present condition of Israeli democracy, it is essential to consider the way in which the state pits its own citizens against one another, enlisting the Jewish majority as conquerers while targeting the Arab others as, in the words of Zionist founding father Chaim Weizmann, “obstacles that had to be cleared on a difficult path.” Historically, only failing states have allowed such a corrosive dynamic to take hold. Thus the scenes from al-Arakib, from the demolished homes to the uprooted gardens to the grinning teens who joined the mayhem, can be viewed as much more than the destruction of a village. They are snapshots of the phenomenon that is laying Israeli society as a whole to waste.

Royal Wedding. Though we don't blame Ms. Clinton for all the attention focused on her. We do blame her for being a hedge-fund employee though, for which she will soon enough have to account before a Revolutionary Tribunal. Enjoy the honeymoon, centrist corporatist capitalist sow, 'cause it won't last forever.

One collection of assholes (to put it mildly) appears responsible for both the TARGET/Best Buy mess in Minn. (See below somewhere, linking is a pain!) & Anne Rice getting huffy about Jesus freaks: You Can Run But You Can't Hide.

Long a cause célèbre for Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has twice lent her name to the group’s fundraising efforts, You Can Run (YCR) had a booth at the GOP convention in April, and the group’s frontman, Bradlee Dean, reports that gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer recently accepted an invitation to visit with him at Dean’s home. But recent controversial statements by Dean — that Muslim countries calling for the execution of gays and lesbians are “more moral than even the American Christians” — have drawn the ire of some both within and outside the party.

“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,” Dean said on YCR’s May 15 radio show on AM 1280 the Patriot. “This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”

“If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that,” Dean continued. “That is what you are seeing in America.”

“The bottom line is this… they [homosexuals] play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator,” Dean said, before going on to make a claim that has no basis in fact: “On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?”

The day after the GOP convention, Dean and radio co-host Jake McMillian spoke on-air about attending the event and their relationship with Emmer (mp3), stating that party chair Tony Sutton wanted them at the convention to attract a younger demographic to the party.

“We were at the GOP, the GOP saw what we do and they identified with it,” McMillian said. “Even when I was sitting down with Tony Sutton and just going over what we do as a ministry, I said to him, ‘Do you know any other groups that are reaching the demographic we are reaching with the message that we are?’ And, of course, it was blink-blink, ‘No, I don’t, so I want you guys a part of this convention with us.’”

He added, “And then they invited and they gave us a free table. Amen.”

The GOP "identifies" w/ this? Huh? Read it all, we can't be troubled to point out every bit of irrationality & homophobia. We might just call for a fatwa on their closeted keisters.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Local comsymps & progressives are reminded that Democracy Now, tee vee version, is available at 2300, M, Tu, Th & F, on KLCS-TV, channel 58.1. Consult your local cable co. for the channel number they've shoved it to. (15, in our TWC universe.)

KLCS is the Los Angeles Unified School District's station. Hope no reactionaries notice; one can imagine the "commie infiltration" whining: "Democracy? What kind of idea is that to be teaching our kids?" To which we reply, "Why are people teaching young goats?"

"I am an American Airman.
I am a Warrior.
I have answered my nation's call.

I am an American Airman.
My mission is to fly, fight, and win.
I am faithful to a proud heritage,
a tradition of honor,
and a legacy of valor."

The Army's Soldier's Creed (2003) makes the same point about the need to be a warrior first and foremost.

Just how much "honor" & "valor" is there in bombing civilians from 30,000 ft., or in playing a video game that involves actual meatspace death & destruction of wedding parties & the like, or "collateral damage?"

The historian (and retired citizen-airman) in me says "no," and I'm supported in this by a surprising source: An American army pamphlet from World War II with the title "How the Jap Army Fights." After praising the Japanese for their toughness and endurance, the pamphlet, citing a study by Robert Leurquin, makes the following point:

"The Japanese is more of a warrior than a military man, and therein lies his weakness. The difference may be a subtle one, but it does exist: The essential quality of the warrior is bravery; that of the military man, discipline."

In 1942, our army cited the "warring passion" of the Japanese as a weakness, one that inhibited their mastery of "the craft of arms." Yet today, our army and air force extol the virtues of being a "warrior" to young recruits.

Today's cult of the warrior, as represented by these new "creeds," may seem cosmetic, but it cuts to the core of our military's self-image. That most Americans have no knowledge of it speaks volumes about the ongoing militarization of our language and even of our country.

After nearly a decade of war, we don't need more "warrior ethos." What we need are disciplined citizen-airmen and citizen-soldiers who know their craft, but who also know better than to revel in a warrior identity. We knew this in 1942; how did we come to forget it?

Oh, we'd assume pants-pissing-&-pooping cowards who've decided that the best way to defeat "America's enemies" is to become just like those enemies. Not unlike our honorable & valorous warriors developing interrogation techniques from the field manual advising Korean "police action"-era service members how to resist dirty Commie interrogation techniques. In other words, we now use North Korean/ChiCom torture methods. How much more honorable & valorous can a warrior get?

(Makes us want to start a little war ourself, if you know what we mean. Wonder if the recruiting station at Sunset & La Brea is still there? Not for long, as we like to say.)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

We're waiting for Arizona Gov. Jan ("Hair Color That Doesn't Appear In Nature In Humans Over Five Yrs. Old") Brewer, of the tuck & rolled eyesockets, to send the Arizona National Guard to invade Iran "because the Obama admin. isn't doing enough to protect us from the Sharia menace."

Besides our national Death Cult (Christianism) awful Americans fetishizing dead people & making a big fucking deal over the eventual disposition of the lifeless corpses of those they send to murder in their names (& die, too) make us nauseous.

What fucking difference could it possibly make whether Junior is actually under the headstone that bears his/her name, rank, service branch & the date they were murdered by/for their government? Huh?

Put the dead fucking bodies to use; grind them up for fertilizer. Strike a blow for life, morbid assholes!

(If these "brave & noble" young people are so fucking important to you armchair generals, why do you make murderers of them & send them to die?)

Note: Plenty of people who've passed through our empty, meaningless life are deader than fucking doorknobs. Never been to visit one of their damn graves. (Funerals excepted.) And our late (But not late enough, damnit!) mother left her wretched body to science, if you can call the UCLA cadaver program science.

The sharp rise in economic insecurity documented by the Rockefeller Foundation study is the outcome of a three-decade-long offensive by the American ruling class against the jobs, wages and living standards of the working class. This assault has only intensified since the eruption of the financial crisis in September 2008, which ushered in the worst recession since the 1930s. Under Obama, the drive to offload the crisis onto the working class has been stepped up, in the form of wage cuts, speedup and savage cuts in social spending at the state and local level.

The Obama administration extended the Wall Street bailout launched under Bush. It then signaled the intention of the ruling class to use mass unemployment to permanently lower the wages and conditions of American workers toward those of impoverished workers in Asia when its Auto Task Force drove General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy last year. This was done to impose new plant closures and layoffs and slash the wages of newly hired auto workers to half the previous level.

Next came the so-called health care “reform,” which will lower health costs for businesses and the government by rationing care and reducing benefits for tens of millions of workers and retirees. Since the passage of the health care overhaul, the administration has abandoned any economic stimulus measures in order to focus on slashing the budget deficit by attacking basic social programs upon which millions of working people rely.

The result of these policies is a record rise in corporate profits, based almost entirely on the reduction in labor costs through layoffs, wage and benefit cuts, and speedup. In many cases, companies have reported sharply higher profits, even though their sales and revenues have declined.

In an article headlined “Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts,” the July 26 New York Times reported that US corporate profits jumped by 40 percent between late 2008 and the first quarter of 2010. It noted that by next year, analysts expect profit margins to reach 8.9 percent, a record high.

The Times wrote that among the S&P 500 companies that have reported their second-quarter results, 175 in all, more than one in ten had higher profits on lower sales, nearly twice the number in a typical quarter before the current recession. Among the firms that have reported earnings for the second quarter, revenues rose 6.9 percent on average while profits surged 42.3 percent.

Next suit-wearing pig we see is going to be on the receiving end of one fuck-tuck-tucking hell of a lot of existential agony.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Appeared in our reader. We didn't give a shit until we read this crap: This feature may not be reproduced or distributed electronically, in print or otherwise without the written permission of uclick and Universal Press Syndicate

We aren't anti-Semitic, but we become more & more anti-Israel every day.Read here. Via.

Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, al-Araqib villagers have been fighting for recognition in the courts. Ranaan told The Electronic Intifada that in the early 1950s, after they were forcefully expelled from their land by Israeli forces, villagers were fined for “trespassing” in their own homes by the Israeli government. Israel has refused to acknowledge al-Araqib villagers’ land deeds and receipts of land taxes paid to the Ottoman authorities well before Israel’s establishment.

“As we speak, the fate of al-Araqib hasn’t been decided in a court,” Ranaan said. “Despite this, Israel came and demolished the homes. Israel is not just changing the facts on the ground, it’s erasing them.”

Most disgusting aspect:

Eyewitness reports say the police were accompanied by several busloads of right-wing Israeli civilians who cheered during the demolitions.

Sickening. Fucking lynch mob, except too chickenshit to do it themselves. Someone get some guns to the Palestinians, already. Oy.

Follow straight to Hell!

E-Z 4 U

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